FalconEye Review 30: Sonic Unleashed Wii
Alright guys, it's the begining of 2013, and now it's time to start reviewing some games again. And I figured, what better way to start a year than a rant review, so here's my review of Sonic Unleashed for the Nintendo Wii. Backstory Alright, so Sonic Unleashed was released in 2008 for the Wii and X-Box 360. Unleashed is the first of the boost games.... sort of. It was originally introduced in Secret Rings as the "Speed Break" and if you want to Count Shadow's chaos move in Shadow the Hedgehog then go right ahead. However, this game was the first to introduce the boost as we know it today.... on the 360 version. But I'll get to that later, onto the review. Plot The Eggfleet? Well, we haven't seen you since Sonic Heroes! Anyway, Dr. Robotnik, or Egg man as you may know him by, is leading his navy towards the earth (or Mobius, whatever you want to call it). When suddenly... BAM!!! Sonic appears on the deck of his mother ship. Eggman begins firing, but Sonic suddenly turns Super... why he has all the chaos emeralds at the begining of the game, I don't know. Anyway, he destroys most of the Egg Fleet, eventually cornering Eggman. While Sonic is smartmouthing Eggman, Eggman activates a machine which sucks Super Sonic's energy out of him and it is used to fire a giant lazer at the earth, splitting it into 7 pieces and releasing a dark creature known as Dark Gaia. The side affects on Sonic leave him slightly more menacing and more burly. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the Werehog, Sonic Unleashed's main gimmick. More on him later. Eggman then launches Sonic to the earth, expecting him to die, but hey. If Shadow can survive falling to the earth, so can Sonic. He ends up landing on this small purple creature who can't remember who he is, or what his name is. Sonic, thinking he's responsible for his amnesia, decides to help him. He eventually nicknames him "Chip" after discovering his love of dessert. The two, with the help of Miles "Tails" Prower and a Proffessor Pickle (okay seriously, what's up with all these food names? Eggman, Cream the Rabbit, chip, Proffessor Pickle, Cheese the Chao? I seriously wouldn't be surprised if next game we have a character called Wings the Chicken). Anyway, with the help of Tails and Prof. Pickle, Sonic and Chip start putting the planet back togethor by going to a Gaia temple on each continent and placing a chaos emerald on an altar, causing that continent to fit back into place. Around the sixth temple (SPOILER ALERT!!!), Chip suddenly remembers that he is actually Light Gaia, the complete opposite of Dark Gaia, and it is his duty to put the planet back togethor. Sonic doesn't allow him to go alone and decides to help him defeat Dark Gaia. The two travel to Eggmanland, where the last temple is hidden, but are stopped by a fully revived Dark Gaia. Dark Gaia rips the werehog from Sonic and procee ds to attack Eggman, are you having Sonic Adventure 1 flashbacks? Dark Gaia is just about to kill Sonic when Chip/Light Gaia uses his powers to warp all the temples to himself and create the Gaia Collossus.... and that cutscene is probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen in a Sonic games, but whatever. Sonic, once again goes super and he and the Gaia Collussus proceed to fight Dark Gaia. After defeating him, Sonic places the last Emerald on the altar, completing the planet and leaving Chip inside with the dying Dark Gaia. With the day saved, and Chips duties fulfilled, Sonic runs off into the sunset with Tails following behind him in the Tornado. Gameplay Alright, i mentioned in the plot section that Sonic turns into a slightly more menacing form after the lazer is fired. So, in Sonic Unleashed there are two different gameplay styles. During the day, you're the blue blur in all his glory with high speed platforming fighting Eggpawns. At night, Sonic transforms into the Werehog, and the speed is gone, replaced with slow platforming and pure combat. I'll start with the Day stages. Allright, so people often criticize Sonic Unleashed's werehog levels, but I'm here to tell you that the Wii version of Unleashed's day levels aren't much better. Yes, we have high speed, but there's very little platforming and the controls are just.... meh. If you're using the wiimote and nunchuck, you move with the analog stick, jump with the a button ect. Now let's get into the boost mechanics. In the lower right corner, there's a bar that fills up when you collect rings, do tricks, or defeat enemies. The bar is cut up into pieces, which increase wh en you collect enough rings. To boost, you flick thhe wiimote forward... and this is kinda bad. In Sonic Colors, there was a button that you held in to boost and you let go of the button when you wanted to stop boosting. Not in this game. Since Sonic Team wasn't smart enough to give the boost it's own button, you have to flick the wiimote forward. Then you'll boost for a while. Then you'll stop. If you want to boost more, flick it again, ect. There's no way to cancel a boost once you've started. And now, here's another problem. To homing attack, you also jump, then flick the wiimote forward. The problem is, to do the airboost, you do the exact same thing. So sometimes, I'll be trying to do the homing attack, but will instead do the airboost, usually sending me falling to my death. There is a gamecube controller option, but I will say this. The controls for that are also pretty bad. This could just be because I went from Colors to this games and the controls on the GC controller were perfect for me, so... Onto the werehog. His levels are completely combat based with a bit of slow platforming to go along with it. The werehog controls like he's on ice. It's like Luigi from Super Mario 2, only in 3D. The combat controls are very wonky. You flick the wiimote to attack with your left fist and the nunchuck with your right fist, or you can do both for a more powerful attack. There's no combo moves. You can level up your attacks so that they're more powerful, but that's about it. The combat itself I here is very similar to that of God of War, but I wouldn't know, I've never played God of War and I don't plan to any time soon. A lot of the enemies you face will have very high health bars, and will take a lot of strength to kill. And some enemies are on fire, so you'll have to find some water to put them out with before you start attacking. And does anyone else think the werehog's death cry is a little too.... dramatic? Anyway, the werehog levels, overall, are not fun at all and I never replay them. Final Boss Yes, I actually have a whole categorie for the final boss. And boy, do I have a lot to say about it. You start out controlling the Gaia collussus, where you dodge Dark Gaia's attacks while trying to beat the crap out of her/it/whatever. This part is no sweat. It's the next two parts that will make you rage quit. You next take control of Sonic, where you have to run through an area while dodging Dark Gaia's tenticles and trying not to fall into an abyss. At the end, you go through a button combo, the homing attack one of Dark Gaia's eyes. This part isn't too bad, but trust me. You better not have died at all during the first two parts, or else you'll never make it through the last part. Here's the Super Sonic battle.... and it's worse than the Secret Rings final boss. If you've played Secret Rings up to the final boss (you poor soul), you'll know exactly what you're getting into. You have to move around Dark Gaia eventually homing attacking it's many eyes while dodging her slashing at you. This final boss mad me rage quit so many times it's not even funny. This boss isn't difficult, it's just frustrating, I like when the final boss is challenging. But there's a difference between legit challenging and just plain cheap. To be honest, I STILL haven't beaten this boss. I can't beat it. I don't wanna beat it. If you get a game over, you have to start all over again with the Gaia Collossus battle. You can't start at the Super Sonic battle. Seriously, Final Hazard from SA2 was better than this, and that boss was pathetic. Good Aspects Alright, I've been pretty negative throughout this entire review. But there are some good aspects about this game. Let's start with the obvious, the music. This game's soundtrack, though not my favorite, is overall very memorable. The main theme, Endless Possbility is epic, and the orchestral remix for the final boss is pretty bangin too. But the best track in this game is the music for the Rooftop Run stage. It will later be remixed in Sonic Generations. Allright one more good thing..... well, this game led the way to one of my favorite games of all time, Sonic Colors. And that's about it. Bad Aspects Allright, I've covered my issues with the controls and final boss, now let's get into some other negatives. You start the game out with two lives. Every stage you start, you start out with two lives. There's no way to get more. In almost every other Sonic game, you got an extra life when you got a certain number of rings. Not in this game. At each stage, you start out with two lives. That's it. This is especially a problem in the final boss, where I usually lose a life in part of Sonic's part. leaving me very little for the Super Sonic part, onloy making the Final Boss more tedious. This game uses the 360's graphics, which are in HD, making everything, especially the character models look fuzzy. Oh, and there are also two stages missing from the 360 version, and from what I here, in the 360 version, there are about an even ammount of Day and Night levels. In this game, it's about two thirds night levels and one third day levels. And speaking of levels, Eggmanland. Like the final boss, this level isn't difficult, It's just drawn out and cheap. And, at the begining, Eggman splits the planet into seven pieces. Seriously. How does Sonic Team expect us to think that nobody died in this event. Mobius' population should have been cut down by like 70 percent. And another thing, he blows up the planet at the start of the game, I mean, you c an't get much more evil then that, but then he spends the rest of the game doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!! Sonic Team really doesn't know what to do with Eggman, do they? They don't know if they want to make him a threat like Ganondorf or Bowser or make him this lazy villian like King Dedede. And another thing, where is G.U.N. throughout this game? I mean, ancient monster reawakened, planet split into pieces, you'd think the top military goons on the planet would be doing something like helping Sonic or sending Shadow or Rouge as aid or trying to capture Eggman, the terrorist responsible for the mess. But I'm getting nitpicky now, so let's move on. Voice Actors I just wanna give this a little overview. The voice acting in this game is actually pretty good. Sonic's voice is pretty good, as well as most of the humans and even Amy Rose isn't too annoying this time. The only two I have a problem with is Tails and Chip. Chip I feel has too deep a voice, but it isn't too bad. Tails, of course , can't decide whether he's a young boy or a girl, and he sounds like a girl in this game. Believe it or not, it wasn't until Sonic Colors that Tails had a good voice actor, and believe it ro not, he was played by a girl in that game. Conclusion Alright, so if you're thinking about getting Sonic Unleashed, get the 360 version. This version is not worth your money or time. I'll give it a 5/10 with the title of BLEH!!!!!!